Pale Red
by sparklymoonchild
Summary: Peering over the edge of the wall, you see a kid running from a horde of zombies. They're catching up to him, and you know that if you don't save him, he's a goner. You can't let this survivor die; you need him. JohnDave post-apocalypse AU. Rated T, but rating may go up if I summon the courage to write smut (no promises though).
1. The Beginning of the End

**A/N: hey guys im back! for those of you who read my last fic, equinox, you know i left to work on a comic, but that didnt go over well, so now im back to writing fanfiction!**

**ive had this idea in my head for a while, and im very excited to write it. its had the time to fester in my mind for months, so i hope itll be good. this first chapter is probably a little vague, but the plot will thicken, i assure you.**

**anyway, here you go!**

* * *

Everything around you is pitch black, with the exception of the glowing red orbs you've been trying to evade. You can hear your heartbeat pounding in your ears, twigs snapping under your feet, and crunching leaves. A huge stitch in your side has you nearly doubling over in pain and it hurts to breathe. But you can't stop. You can't. The consequences will be dire if you do.

You have no idea where you are, why you're here, or why you're running.

All you know is that it seems like this will never end.

Suddenly, there's a horrifying screech. Then another. And another. The ground slips out from underneath you, and your stomach churns as you begin to fall into an endless abyss. You try to cover your ears as the screaming makes your skin crawl.

Something abruptly smacks you from behind and you hear your name as everything stops.

"John!"

"_John!"_

_"JOHN!"_

You shoot up in your bed, sheets tangled around your legs, your shirt soaked with sweat. Your nine year old little sister Jade is perched at the end of your bed, "Did you have your bad dream again?"

"Yeah," You pant, trying to get your heart rate back down.

"Was it the red things again, with the screaming?"

You nod.

"It's okay, John, it's just a dream!" She smiles and scoots up on your lap to give you a hug, and you shakily wrap your arms around her. "Now come downstairs or you're gonna be late for school! Dad's making pancakes for breakfast!" She hops off your bed and scurries out your bedroom door.

"Alright, I'll be down there in a minute." You call after her. You fall back onto your pillow and rub your eyes with the heels of your palms. This dream used to come about once a month, but recently it's been almost every night. It's starting to freak you out. You exhale, reaching for the glasses on your bedside table, hands still trembling.

_I hope it's just a dream,_ you think, _I've never had one that's felt this real._

"-it's not true!-"

"-five different new'th th'our'th'e'th!-"

"I don't care, it's just some fucking crackpot theory, it's not gonna happen!"

"What are you guys arguing about this time?" You ask your friends, not looking up from the AP physics homework you're trying to bullshit before class starts. They dump their books on the empty desks in front of yours and turn around to face you.

"Sollux thinks-"

"I don't think, Karkat, I _know_."

"Would you let me fucking finish!?"

"Continue, prin'th'e'th." Sollux smirks. Karkat's face reddens a little, and he punches him in the shoulder.

"Anyway," Karkat says, "Dick-for-brains over here believes this bullshit story that there's two meteors heading straight for us that going to bring about the fucking apocalypse."

"What?" You laugh. "Dude are you serious?"

"It'th true!" Sollux insists. "I've done the re'th'erch! They're Alpha 1111 and Beta0413 and they are _ma'th'ive._ NA'th'A i'th th'et to relea'th'e the information for if or when they're th'oppe'th'ed to hit any th'econd now. If they hit u'th, the entire continent will be de'th'troyed."

"Bullshit." Karkat mumbles.

"And that'th not all," Sollux says. "It coin'th'ide'th with thi'th religiou'th cult'th th'uppo'th'ed prediction of the reckoning." He pulls up an article on his phone and hands it to you. "They're called the Alternian'th and they ba'th'e out of an old re'th'ervation in Arizona. They're kind of creepy."

You scroll through the Wikipedia page on the Alternians, and what you read makes you feel uneasy.

_The Alternians_ are a tribal religious cult founded by the Medigo family based in the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona. Though their religious practices are typically shrouded in secrecy, the only ritual that has been viewed is the _Saltatio decessione_, a tribal dance that tells of the apocalypse. Along with the dance is a song spoken in Latin which portrays a tale of a selected few survivors who pay for society's wrongdoings and obtain great power through horrifying journeys, which begin with a plague of recurring nightmares. Typically a ritual performed on solar and lunar equinoxes, the _Saltatio decessione_ has been performed much more frequently by the Alternians. Some speculate that this is a warning that apocalypse is nearing.

See more:

**Medigo Family History**

**Alternian Founding**

**_Saltatio decessione_**

As soon as you read "recurring nightmares" you drop Sollux's phone onto your open notebook. "Nope nope nope nope!"

"Creepy, i'thn't it!"

"Wow okay, too many coincidences at once!" You say with a small chuckle.

"What do you mean?" Sollux asks.

"I've had this really weird nightmare the past few months, and it's been happening a lot lately, I had one just this morning!" You say.

"Really?"

"Yes! I'm being chased by these red things and then I fall, something hits me, and I wake up." You explain.

"That's really fucking creepy." Karkat says.

"I know, and now that I-"

The door to your classroom bursts open and your eccentric physics teacher Ms. Lalonde stumbles in.

"Hey there kiddos, sorry I'm late, traffic jam or somethin'. People keep stoppin' and starin' at these things in the sky, takin' pictures 'n' stuff. I got a few I'll pass my phone around." You perk up at this, and try to hide your interest. She dumps her bags on her desk and starts digging through one. "Did I assign homework last night?" She pulls a pink water bottle out of one of her bags, takes a swig and cringes. "Whoo, that's strong today. Okay, I'm pretty sure I did assign homework, pass up your notebooks, I'll give ya twenty points for it. Today we're gonna learn about oscillation and gravitation, another one of my faves. It's easy-peasy lemon squeezy."

You groan and hand up your notebook. You only finished half of your homework.

...

The rest of your day goes by relatively normal. Your classmates kept talking about those two things in the sky that now look like giant stars that didn't set with the moon.

"They're headed _right for us_."

"It's probably aliens."

"NA'th'A th'aid they weren't gonna hit!"

"It's that weird cult!"

"We're gonna die!"

"Did you see Ms. Lalonde's pictures, they're real!"

"It's a hoax, guys, calm down!"

"This is just like that show, Siberia!"

It all made you very nervous.

Walking home from school, you notice the sky looks as if the sun is setting much earlier than usual. It's three o'clock in the afternoon in the middle of May, and the sky is tinted a light pink, and the sun is shining ten times brighter than usual. It all looks pretty, but very unsettling.

It's not until you're a block away from your house that your town's emergency sirens starts to blare. You run as fast as your feet can carry you back to your house and you have never been more thankful that your dad made you try out for your school's track team freshman year.

You burst through the front door and walk into an empty house. Your dad's pipe is still on the coffee table next to the newspaper, Jade's stuffed dog Bec is on the floor next to the couch, and the TV is on, the emergency broadcasting system advising you seek shelter immediately.

"Dad!? Jade!?" You call out. Nothing. "DAD! JADE!" You run upstairs. Jade's not in her room, you even check under her massive pile of Squiddles. You almost don't check your dad's room because of that emotionally scarring situation when you were thirteen, but then you tell yourself that _this is very serious and you need to find your family._ They aren't in your dad's room. You check the bathrooms, under the sinks, in the linen closet, and they are nowhere to be found. You panic.

You rush down into the basement as the emergency sirens become more urgent, and that's when you see them. They're outside the sliding doors that lead to your backyard, looking up at the now red, foreboding sky where the two stars have now out-sized the sun itself.

"GUYS GET INSIDE!" you yell, banging on the glass. Dad and Jade don't move. "GUYS COME ON!" No response. Frustrated, you open the sliding door, and pull at both of their arms. "Dad, Jade, we need to get inside, _right now_." They don't budge. Instead, they both turn their heads slowly toward you.

"Goodbye, John." Your little sister says monotonously, her face blank and pale. She blinks, and you swear you see her eyes blaze red.

The sirens screech louder, and terrified, you drop your sister's hand and sprint back into the basement as a huge gust of wind blows past your house. You dart into a storage closet, crouching between boxes and you hear an explosion as time slows down.

All you hear is the ringing in your ears, and slowly, slowly, boxes tumble around you, the walls of the closet caving in over your head.

You can feel the heat of an inferno around you, and the last thought that crosses your mind before you black out is _oh god I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna die a virgin._

* * *

**A/N: i hope you liked it! ill try to update as much as possible, but itll be irregular. i hopefully wont go months at a time without an update like last time.**

**thanks for reading, and see you soon!**

**-smc**


	2. A Lonely Road

**A/N: finally, i have chapter two done! there's a little more detail and plot development, and yay there's dave! i think this is the last time the chapter will be vague, so there's that as well. anyway, enjoy the chapter!^^**

* * *

Your eyes flutter open, and you can't quite remember where you are. There's light filtering in through the gaps in the pile of rubble you're trapped under, and you feel as it you can't move. You remember walking home from school, the emergency alarms going off, walking into empty house, and Dad and Jade standing outside staring at the red sky. You remember Jade's solemn face and how her eyes flickered red. You remember running into the closet, and a massive explosion. After that, your mind goes blank.

Your name is John Egbert, you are seventeen years old, and you somehow managed to survive the apocalypse.

_How the fuck am I gonna get out of this_, you think. You try to lift what used to be a large portion of the closet off you, but it's weighed down with more debris. You try again, pushing it upwards a few times, and after a few tries, it lifts up, and you push it away. You have no idea how long you've been out, but you see a bright blue sky through the opening. You try standing up, only to find your right leg is caught under wood.

Shit.

You tug at your leg, and it-**_ hoLY MOTHER OF GOD IS THAT A HAND THAT IS A HAND A HAND OH MY GOD._**

You recoil faster than you can say "what the fuck oh god", and after much pushing, a cut along your leg, and several possible splinters, you make it out of the pile of wood and insulation that used to be your home.

After catching your breath, you look around at what used to be your picture perfect neighborhood. There's no grass to be seen; only dirt. All the pretty stone houses with the wreaths on their doors are now just a pile of nothing. The sidewalks that were once decorated with chalk drawings from all the little kids on your street are now crumpled, cracked, and burned. The trees you would climb in the summer are fallen and smoldering. Even your slimer pogo is a heap of metal in what used to be your neighbor's yard two houses- heaps- down.

You didn't notice you were crying until a tear lands on the cracked lens of your glasses.

You fall on your knees into the dirt.

It's gone.

It's gone.

It's all gone.

They're all gone.

* * *

"Dude! Dude! There's another one to your left, look out!" You swerve left on your hover board before another one of these pale fuckers can get to you and slice its head off with your katana in a practiced swoop.

Damn these things are creepier than you expected.

Another pale skinned, red-eyed zombie heads your way, with about seven or eight more behind it.

You recognize the face, a girl who went to your school you think. Her short, fire engine red hair makes her appearance look even creepier. You're almost sucked in by her eyes before you remember to close your eyes. As you swipe your katana through her white neck, she lets out a sickening screech, and you cringe.

As her head rolls off onto the road, you remember. She asked you out once. You had declined. Her name was Terezi, you think.

You must've fallen into your thoughts, as your older brother Dirk comes from behind you on his hover board and takes out the others in three or four slashes. When he finishes, he turns to you. "Dude, I know this is difficult, I get it. We'll recognize these people, but we gotta do it." You sense him make eye contact with you from behind his shades. "Just… try not to remember, okay?"

You nod.

"'Kay," he says. "Let's keep moving. These things ain't gonna kill themselves."

You head off farther into downtown Suburbia in search of more undead hordes. If you don't kill them off soon enough, they'll create a monster.

As Dirk leads you into the inner city, you look out at what were once the suburbs. What used to be endless rows of perfectly repetitive neighborhoods is nothing more than a pile of ashes. You hope none of the other survivors are in there.

You almost want to ask Dirk if you can go down, but you already know what he'd say: all the zombies are headed towards the center of the city.

So you bite your tongue.

* * *

You don't know how long you've been walking. You need to get out of this neighborhood. You need to stop remembering all the friends and all the friends that you are more than certain are dead.

You need to stop walking on all these paths, but you can't. They're engraved into your brain, and your feet are automatically walking down them. This is the one you used to take to Karkat and Sollux's houses in the summer, and the one you used to take to the summer camp bus and the pool in middle school. The one you took in October with Gamzee Makara and his boyfriend Tavros after the homecoming game to sneak into Cronus Ampora's rager. You might not have gotten tipsy for the first time at that party, or tried your first hit of pot or made out with Vriska Serket in a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven.

You cover your ears with your hands, as if it'll stop all these memories from coming to you. You keep walking. You don't know where you're headed, but something is pulling you there.

What you need to do is escape. Escape the pain of remembering. The past is naught but a mere memory now. Yesterday seems like last year, earlier today seems like yesterday, and the present seems like some kind of twisted nightmare.

But you're not going to wake up from this. You never will. This is reality now. There's nobody left but you. You lived through this for a reason, and now you have to find that reason and keep going.

You look up, and the sun is beginning to set. It's much prettier without all the lights and buildings in the way, you think. Off in the distance, you see the remains of the city, and you decide that's where you're going to go.

So you keep walking.

* * *

**A/N: there's chapter 2! chapter 3 will be up sometime soon!**

**Thanks for reading and see you next time! :D**

**-smc**


	3. Run In

**A/N: yay, a real chapter! not a filler! yay!**

**also i didn't look over this, so sorry if there's any errors.**

* * *

"Lil man…" _Kick_. "Lil man." _Kick_. "Get the fuck up." _Kick, kick._

"Don't call me that." you groan, sitting up. Your stretch your back, allowing it to crack. A worn mattress on the floor of a concrete parking garage isn't exactly the best thing to sleep on, but it's all you have. Dirk is sitting in front of you at the edge of the bed stitching a hole closed in your shirt. You keep telling him not to fix each hole or tear your clothing gets and to save the thread, but he doesn't really listen.

You scoot away from the mysterious stain on the mattress that you aren't sure is either sweat, piss, or cum. "What's the agenda for today?" you ask.

Dirk cuts the thread on his needle with his teeth and ties a knot on the split ends hanging from your shirt. Tossing you your shirt, he reaches over the side of the mattress and picks up a worn notebook. You slip your shirt over your head as he unfolds a large map covered in notes and tape.

"Today, we'll hit the warehouses," Dirk says, pointing to a spot on the map marked with a red X. "There should be a lot there." You nod. "Next, we'll go to the schools. Anywhere large, they should be there."

* * *

Ten minutes ago, you were asleep under a makeshift fort. Now, you're running for your life.

Last night, you made it into the city and began looking for a place to sleep. You found a small, hidden, alley that seemed suitable. Using large pieces of broken concrete, you made a fort adjacent to a wall to conceal you while you slept. You were out immediately.

And just ten minutes ago you were awoken by a loud screech. You took a glimpse outside the edge of your hut, and there stood a crowd of the most frightening things you have ever seen. They were people, about ten of them, and you knew they had to be dead. They had colorless, white skin and bright red eyes that looked like Jade's the last time you saw her. Their clothes were torn, their hair was tangled and messy, and some had bloodstains on them. One of them let out a loud shriek and you jumped back into your little hut. After a few moments, you saw a pair of feet floating above the ground outside. It was either run, or die.

You chose to run, which is what you are still doing. Running for your fucking life from these creepy-ass pieces of shit. What the fuck were they and where did they come from? Panting, you turn a corner and jump through a broken door into what used to be a coffee shop. Hopping over broken cups and scattered silverware, you hide behind the barista counter. You catch your breath and sit down, careful not to sit on anything sharp. You begin to observe everything around you, and notice that there's salvageable food. Boxed muffins and bread, cupcakes, cake pops, bags of pita chips. It's the most hipster shit ever but you don't care because hipster doesn't exist anymore and it's food. Using your dirty, plaid over shirt as a bindle sack, you start gathering up pastries. You haven't eaten in days at least and you stuff a smushed red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing into your mouth and sweet baby jesus that is divine.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see something that's a dark brownish-green and you almost pass it off as baklava until you get a better look at it.

_It's Naked juice_.

You pounce on that fucker and rip it open and hell fucking yes it tastes like the tears of god. You start looking for more and you find two red ones, an orange protein, and another one with acai berry and try shoving them in your pockets. One fits in each pocket, so you'll have to put the others in your shirt-pack. You see a pale white one underneath a shelf, yay banana flavored.

It's cold. And soft. This is not a banana flavored Naked juice.

It's another one of those dead people things, isn't it?

You see it slowly rise up, and you discover it is an arm, an arm attached to a short, dead, hipster douche in a barista's apron. The red eyes behind thick framed-glasses are glowing, and you feel yourself drawn by them. They don't seem scary, they seem warm and inviting.

_Come wwith me, John._

"How do you know my name?"

_Does that matter? Come wwith me. You'll have fun._

"W-what do you mean?" You can't stop looking at his eyes.

_The fun a payin' your dues. Livvin' out my pain. It's a beautiful pain. The pain a thousands a angels. The wwrath I've felt inside myself for years. Come on, John._

You can feel him sucking you in. "N-no." It takes all your strength, but you manage to close your eyes. You feel around for a shard of glass, and pick one up. Shakily, you throw it in the dead barista's general direction. He lets out a piercing shriek that makes your ears ring. You scramble to your feet and run back outside, almost forgetting your shirt-pack.

The barista's scream must have notified more of the dead, because by the time you make it down the block there's at least twenty of them surrounding you.

Welp, this is it guys. It was nice knowing you.

* * *

"What the fuck was that?" you ask.

"Sounded signal scream." Dirk says. "Sounded nearby."

You get up from the mattress and walk over to the edge of the parking garage. Peering over the wall, you see a kid running from a horde of pale reds. They're catching up to him, and you know that if you don't save him, he's a goner.

You can't let this survivor die; you need him.

You grab your hover board and katana, tapping the end of the board to activate it. Swooping over the wall of the parking garage, you zero in on the kid. "Hey! Watch out!" He turns and looks your way, and you're so stunned you plow right into him.

The two of you tumble to the ground, your katana hitting the ground with a _clank_, and your hover board flying into the sun.

And there it goes. It is RIDICULOUS what kind of air this thing is getting. Dude, come get a ruler and check this out. Yeah, it's not coming back.

"Uh, excuse me." It suddenly occurs to you that you are full on straddling this kid and didn't even notice.

"S-sorry dude." You stutter. You feel your cheeks heat up. That's embarrassing. You quickly get off of him.

"It's cool, but I think we have a bigger problem." He points behind you, and you turn to see the pale reds you knocked over slowly getting up.

"Shit." You mumble. You grab your katana from the ground and start swinging. Dirk comes down on his board and joins in the battle. You take out two in one swing, and one grabs you from behind. Stabbing it in the foot, you break free from its grasp as it wails and take it out with one cut through the neck. You see some pale red hipster barista and slice him in half though the abdomen. Another grabs at you again, and you cut off its arm before severing its head. By this time, Dirk has taken care of the rest. You killed five this time, your average. Dirk is still ahead of you.

"Holy shit." The kid comes up from behind you. "That… was amazing! Dude, you totally looked like the badass protagonist in an action movie!"

"Uh… thanks." You say, rubbing the back of your neck.

"Thanks for saving me by the way." He sticks out his hand. "My name is John."

"Dave." You say, hesitantly shaking his hand.

You take in his features; his bright blue eyes, round face, slightly buck teeth, messy black hair.

You look to Dirk out of the corner of your eye, and he's smirking.

He can tell, too.

You're fucked.

* * *

"Uh, you can let go of my hand now."

"S-sorry."

* * *

**A/N: oooooh, crush development. next chapter you'll get more info on what pale reds are, and what exactly is going on with what dave and dirk are doing, etc.**

**thanks for reading! see you next time!**

**-smc**


	4. I'm a Survivor

**A/N: oh my god sorry for going weeks without an update! ive been sidetracked by literal assloads of schoolwork and im also working on a side project [TOP SECRET]. but anyway *slaps you in the face with plot development***

**enjoy!**

* * *

There is currently a cute boy on your mattress, looking at all the posters you and Dirk have hung on the walls of the parking garage. He kind of followed you and Dirk around today fighting pale reds, which was mildly awkward because the three of you had to pile onto one hover board as you had lost yours this morning saving him. You didn't mind being so close to him, but he seemed slightly uncomfortable. He kind of stood off in the distance while you and Dirk fought, trying to hide from the pale reds, but after a while he took you by surprise by chasing one down and smashing its head in with some kind of mallet he found, allowing you to take it out in record time. For the rest of the day, the two of you acted as a team- John disabling the pale reds with his mallet, and you killing them with your katana. You didn't get to speak to him much throughout the day, when you did it was to warn him to look out, or hurry up, but in some way, you felt kind of closer to him as creepy as that may sound.

Anyway, back to the present. On the maps he's staring at are places marked to hunt pale reds, as well as places to hide from them if need be. There's also places where you and Dirk have hypothesized the rest of the survivors are, marked in greens, blues and purples and pinks.

"So what does all of this mean?" John asks.

"What does what mean?" You reply, helping Dirk relocate your hover board on his makeshift computer.

"All these maps." He says. "This one over here…" He gets up off the mattress to walk over to an anatomical diagram of a pale red. The diagram shows where to hit to kill a pale red: through the neck or abdomen and straight through the chest. It also warns to never look directly in their eyes. "Is this one those pale red dead things?"

"Yeah," you say.

"I think I used to have dreams about them…" He mumbles.

You look over at Dirk, and he raises his eyebrows over his shades.

"Then… you must be a survivor." You say.

"Well, duh," John snorts. "I survived the apocalypse."

"No, like, a true survivor." You clarify. "Someone who was chosen to live, and not someone who got really lucky."

"What?" John asks, confused. He wrinkles his nose in a way that makes you scream internally.

"You've heard of the Medigos, right?" Dirk asks, keying a code into his computer.

John perks up. "Yeah- yeah I have! They kind of scare me. Before the meteors came, my friend Sollux showed me this wiki page about them! They founded the Alternians, right?"

"Yep," Dirk says. "They caused the world to end."

"They caused it? I thought they just predicted it."

"That's what they wanted you to think." You say. "The Medigo sisters, Famula, Damara, and Aradia work for the god, Scratch, who created our universe." You explain. "About twenty years ago, Scratch decided that the world he created had sinned too much and everyone needed to pay. So he sent down his daughters, the Medigos, and they began searching for the eight pure survivors who would pay for society's sin. Four men and four women."

"Once they came down, the only one alive was me." Dirk says. "I was two years old and Dave was on his way. That was enough for them. So they set up camp in Arizona undercover as a religious cult and began preparing."

"Being a survivor means you were chosen to pay. You said you had dreams about the pale reds, right?" You ask.

"Yeah," Says John, rubbing the back of his neck. "They were of me running from these red orbs, and they were all I could see. Then I'd fall and something would hit me and I'd wake up. They only started about a year ago, and I wouldn't have them too often. Then they started happening once a month, and then a few weeks ago, every night."

"That's how it starts, and how you know you're a survivor." You explain. "Dirk and I got them, too, although ours were a little different. After the nightmares comes the apocalypse, seeing everything you love demolished. The pale reds are about as bad as it gets. Your friends and family are gone. They're zombies that try to kill you, and you remember the life they had and the love they shared with you, but all they want is to hurt you. And never. Look them. In. The. Eye. As much as you want to, don't do it. They'll suck you into another dimension based off the pain they had in their life. If you do get sucked in, _don't move._ A hole will open up and you can escape. Move, and you'll get lost and die."

"That almost happened to me!" John exclaims. "I had to look away, and he almost got me, so I tried to kill him…"

"Do it. Through the neck, chest, or abdomen." Dirk says, keying in a code on his computer and groaning. "Jesus dick, how far did that thing go…" He mumbles.

John nods, trying to understand everything.

"We can't kill all of them, though." You say. "Eventually they're going to morph into a supermonster named Lord English. If we prove to be superior and manage to stay alive, we get to keep the earth. If we die along the way or trying to kill him, he'll destroy everything and it'll be like the Earth never existed. But the more pale reds we kill, the easier it'll be to kill him because he won't be 100% complete."

"That doesn't make much sense though, why would we go through all this just to get a dead planet?" John questions.

"Gotta prove our worth." Dirk says. "We'll end up developing powers, and if we win, we become the new gods. Us dying will prove that Earth was a sinful wasteland worthy of being eliminated."

"What powers do we get?" John asks excitedly. _He's cute when he's excited_, you think. _Wait, fuck._

"Could be anything," Dirk says. "Space powers, light powers, time, doom, blood, void, life, mind or heart or hope."

"Woah! I hope I get like space powers or something! Or mind! I could control people's thoughts!" He places his fingers on his temples. "I could probably make Lord English kill himself." John seems very animated, and it almost makes you smile.

"There's a breath power, too." You add.

"Breath?" John giggles. Oh no, he has a cute laugh, too. "Why breath? That sounds dumb, like ooh, you better watch out there, English, or I'll knock you out with my terrible morning breath!" This time, you do smile a bit. You sense Dirk look at you out of the corner of his eye, and you glance over and notice a subtle smirk on his face.

John falls back onto the mattress with a grunt. "How do you know all this, anyway? Did I miss some sort of secret survivors' meeting or something?"

"Technically, we weren't supposed to know. All this was supposed to be a surprise, like it is for you. Scratch and the Medigos were hoping we would all just die, but they didn't expect little Calliope to escape from the camp." Dirk says.

"Who's Calliope?"

"She's one of like, Scratch's ideas. " Dirk explains. "She's pretty much the living version of yang, and her twin brother Caliborn is yin. They're supposed to restore balance on Earth while there's disarray. Until the world ended, she was a handmaid at the Alternian camp working for the Medigos, so she knew about everything. And bless her heart, she didn't agree with everything and ran off. She found us here in the city a couple of months ago, and we took her in. Bro loved her. Bro was Dave and I's older brother, and unfortunately, he wasn't a pre-chosen survivor and…passed. We kept her around for a while and she told us all about the Medigos, and of course we were skeptical, it all sounded bizarre, but with how intricate the things Callie explained were, we believed her and started preparing and training. Thank goodness we did, because look where we are now."

"Where is Calliope?"

"We don't know." You sigh. "She ran off a few days ago, probably to look for you or something, she probably didn't realize how close you were, I honestly didn't expect another survivor to be so close. We haven't seen her since." Everything goes quiet from there. Calliope was so nice, all short and petite and blonde and she would cook for you and your brothers. She was also an amazing storyteller; you loved her stories, especially the ones about the stars. You loved those the most. They were the nicest.

* * *

You've had quite the day. Running from dead people, having more than one near-death experience, and coming across two other survivors who are quite the pair. There's Dirk, who's a little older than you and has spiky blond hair and pointy anime shades and is probably ten times smarter than you could ever hope to be. And his younger brother Dave who saved your ass from those pale red zombie things. Dave has that floppy skater kid hair everyone had back in, like, 2009, and wears shades like his brother, except his are aviators. They remind you of Ben Stiller's. That makes you happy. Dave seems like the quiet type who is uncomfortable with talking too much, but you like him. In a friend way. Yeah. You fought the zombies with him today and it was really fun! Like an extreme bro hangout.

But this whole situation is confusing and it all seems like a bad dream that you want to wake up from, but you know it's not a dream, it's your life now. You really just want to see Jade again. You keep trying to push her out of your mind because you know she's dead. You just haven't quite accepted it yet. How can Jade be dead? She was just alive a few mornings ago. You decide to stop thinking about that, to stop remembering once again. You look over and discover that Dirk had relocated Dave's flying skateboard as it comes flying into the parking garage, nearly smacking him square in the face.

"Hey dudes, the sun's getting pretty low, how 'bout we hit the hay?" Dirk announces. "Hey John, wanna sleep on there? There's a couple of useable cars back there that Dave and I slept in once. I don't think the three of us can sleep on that thing."

"Oh, uh," You look at the mattress again. Jesus tits how long has that stain been there? Wait is that piss? Sweat? Cum? Ew, god, no, retract retract retract. "A car please."

"How 'bout you Dave? Wanna cuddle with me tonight?" Dirk smirks.

"God, fuck, no thanks." Dave says. "I'll sleep with John."

"Course you would."

"Fuck off."

You are confused.

Dirk leads you behind a wall where several burnt and crushed cars are, however there are a few along the wall that are just mildly charred.

"Take your pick, John. We got a Smartcar, a car that looks like it must've belonged to a hoarder, or a soccer mom minivan that has a temporarily unusable car TV and a thing in the floor full of Disney movies."

"Minivan." You say without hesitation. Dirk kicks the door a few times to open it and you crawl inside to the third row and lie down. Dave lies on the floor underneath you. This is mildly awkward. Again.

"Night." He says.

"Night." You say.

You get as comfortable on the seat as you can and drift into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

**A/N: wOoOoOo im getting so excited writing this! ive gotten comfortable with writing again, so it's getting a lot less blunt and more in character i hope and nOW THAT THE PLOT IS OUT THERE THE FUN THINGS CAN START HAPPENING! ^u^ i'll update as soon as i can; ive started writing chapter 5 on my phone, so it should be up soon!**

**thanks for reading and see you next time!**

**-smc**


	5. Jaded

**A/N: heyyy yeah chapter 5. yep here you go.**

* * *

You wake up at the asscrack of dawn as usual and attempt to stretch in the cramped space, nearly hitting your head on the side of the car. Lying on the floor, you roll over onto your back to look up at John. He's curled up on the bench seat, face smushed against the cushion and glasses askew. His hair is a matted mess and his hand is dangling over the edge. How fucking adorable.

You slowly raise your hand to gently lift his index finger with your own, and then let it go, watching it slowly curl back into its natural position. You've always kinda liked how fingers did that. Carefully, you do the same with his middle and ring fingers.

"You having fun there, Dave?" You flinch and quickly retract your hand.

"S-sorry." You stutter. "I just, I like fingers." Smooth, Strider. Smooth.

"You have a finger kink?" John asks with a smirk.

"N-no. I just, I like them."

"So a finger kink?" John says, adjusting himself onto his arms to see you better.

"Hey, I didn't say I'd put them anywhere." You retort.

"Would you put fingers anywhere?"

"That's pretty personal, John." You say. "I don't even know your last name and you're asking me about my kinks."

"It's Egbert." He says.

"Egbert? Your name is John Egbert?"

"Uhh, yeah."

Holy shit. "That is equal parts dorky and adorable and I can't even comprehend it."

"So my name is _adorkable?_" John smirks, his face a slight pink. God he's cute.

"You scene nerd."

"God mom! This isn't a phase, this is _who I am!_" He mocks. You chuckle. "You never answered my question about the fingers, and I'm not going to let you avoid an answer."

"I might put fingers somewhere and I'm leaving it at that." You say.

"Eww." John crinkles his nose. "Dude, that's gross!" He giggles. "But wait…what's your last name?"

"Strider."

John chuckles, looking over at you, "You've got to be kidding me. That is the most pretentious name I have ever heard. _Dave Strider."_

"Hey, I can't help it, I've got the swaggest name in the world."

"Oh my god, you did not just say that. You just ruined this whole thing."

"What thing?"

"This conversation, Dave. Swag is dead."

You were about to give some kind of snarky comeback when Dirk started banging on the side of the car door and yelled "Rise and shine, ladies. There's places to go and dead things to see." He kicks the door again, popping it open and sticks his head inside. "Come on, guys. We're gonna hit another school today."

"Which one?" You ask. There were several schools in your city: three high schools, six middle schools, and eight elementary schools. So far you and Dirk have been through Ecto and Turn Elementary and Windy Middle school. Schools were your least favorite places to hunt pale reds, as they were mostly filled with children.

"We're going to Prospit High." Dirk answers. "There's not too many pale reds left here; they've all either been exterminated or have begun congregating to one area in the city, so I think today will be our last day in the city. Besides, we have John now and it's not likely there's another survivor around here, so we should start looking for the others as well."

"Wait, Prospit High?" John asks.

"Yeah." Dirk says.

"That's where I went to school."

Saying you aren't scared to go into your old high school knowing you will likely be killing your undead classmates would be an understatement. You are extremely scared. You had known almost everyone in your grade and the thought of going with Dave and Dirk to smash their heads in with a mallet and decapitating them makes you want to cry.

You're sitting on the back of Dave's hover board, clutching the edges to keep you from falling off when Dave turns. Suddenly Dave drops and you look over your shoulder at the burnt shell of your school. He lands just a few inches above the ground, bouncing a little, and you stand and turn. There's already a few pale reds on the front lawn and a few on the stairs and Dirk immediately kills them.

"Come on, Egbert!" Dave yells, running up the stairs and stabbing a pale red through the chest. She shrieks and you cringe. "What are you waiting for?"

You try to move, but your legs are leaden and you can't. You don't want to go in there. You watch as Dave and Dirk climb through the broken front doors and disappear into your school.

Well now you feel absolutely useless. But they can handle this on their own right? They had for days until they found you. But you're one of them now. Sure they know what they're doing, but you're a team. The one thing you learned from JV Track besides running fucking sucks is that a team has to work together. If someone ran a 100-meter relay by themselves, they'd lose because they can't just keep running with the baton as it is against the rules to do so. They have to pass it on to someone else. Dave and Dirk are running this metaphorical 3x100 relay and they've already run their 100 meters and now they have to pass the baton to you. So do it John, you big ninny. Bash some of your classmates heads in. they're already dead anyway, and according to Dave and Dirk they're just trying to morph into some big, hideous monster. Do it for the Striders.

But mostly, do it for Dad and Jade. Make Dad proud.

_Dad and Jade._ **_Dad and Jade_**_. _What if they're in there? What if theyre-

With a primal yell, you burst into the school where Dave and Dirk are in the lobby and start smashing some pale red skull. One comes in through your left, and you swing your arm and bash through its forehead. Another's neck was partially cut through by Dirk's katana, and you hit it hard enough that its head falls off. You keep smashing heads until every pale red that came through the lobby is dead.

Once it's clear, you slouch against a wall to catch your breath.

"Nice job out there, man." Dave pants, holding out his fist. You fist bump him and breathe out a small "thanks."

"Didn't think you were gonna make it in." He says.

"I wasn't gonna at first, but I thought that-" Your words catch in your throat and you shut your mouth.

"Thought what?" Dave asks.

You shake your head, "It's nothing."

"Come on guys, there's probably more in here." Dirk yells, walking over. "Dave, you go down this hall toward the English/ World Language wing, I'll go through the Social Studies and Humanities wing, and John, you got the Math and Science wing. We'll all meet up in the cafeteria."

"I don't know my way around here." Dave says, walking towards the hall with the half melted sign that makes out "Eng n Wo Guages"

"If you get lost, just go straight you should end up in the right place." Dirk calls.

You turn and enter the hall of "Ma nd Nces," peering into the empty classrooms. The desks and chairs are scattered out into the halls, and you step over dozens of papers. There's some classrooms with small fires burning in them, and in one room the Smart Board is still on, its screen broken and glitching. You can make out that it had been displaying logarithms. The clock on the far right reads 3:21 PM.

You exit the room after checking in the classroom cupboards for pale reds. You walk to the back of the wing where the advanced classes are held, keeping an eye out for any movement.

_john? _

You turn. "Hello?" you call.

_john!_

"Jade!?" You yell. You knew it. You knew she was in here. You bolt back down the hall, double checking the rooms. "Jade, where are you!?"

_john, im down here! where you were!_

You run back down to the advanced classrooms. "Where, which room!?"

_physics! hurry!_

You stand in the middle of the hall where the physics rooms are. "There's four physics classes, Jade, which one?"

_everything is pink_

It's Ms. Lalonde's room.

You enter room 413 and look around. There's upturned desks and papers scattered all over the floor. Some of the posters that displayed quantum information and everyday types of matter are singed, and you smile when you notice Ms. Lalonde's handmade poster that says "everything is easy if u just friggin try u guys" is still there. That one was your favorite.

_john im under here_

You turn around to Ms. Lalonde's desk and tentatively walk around to the other side.

Underneath you see Jade. Her skin is pale and she has her eyes closed behind her broken, round glasses. Her favorite denim skirt is torn and dirty and her favorite t-shirt that came with her stuffed Bec is in shreds. She's lost one sneaker as one foot is bare, and in her hands, she's clutching a piece of light pink paper.

"Jade?" You whisper. She's shaking, and you reach out to touch her. You can't bear to see your baby sister like this.

_dont john_

You pull back your hand. "Why?"

_john i need your help. please listen_ _to me_

You nod.

_this wasnt supposed to happen to me. im supposed to be like you and those two boys. but something happened and now im dead, i think, im not sure. but i need you to help me so i can help you. john, please feel my pain._

"Your pain? But you were always so happy."

_john, look into my eyes._

Hesitantly, you slowly lift you head and find yourself looking into Jade's undead eyes. They aren't red like the others', but green. A very, very bright green that you can't seem to pull away from.

_its okay, john. this is going to help us._

You can feel her eyes pulling you further and further in.

_everything will be okay_

There's a huge burst of light and you can feel yourself leaving this place.

When you open your eyes again, you have landed in a completely different world.

* * *

**A/N: yayy i hoped you liked it! updates will be more often now that my school is out, so the next update wont be in like a month.**

**see you soon!**

**-smc**


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